The first independent, daily pricing data service for pre-IPO stocks launched today by ApeVue, a new capital markets data company. The service provides daily prices for around 100 non-public companies, including well known unicorns like SpaceX, Impossible Foods and Epic Games, as well as less visible, but significant companies like Addepar, Chime and Discord.
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While pre-IPO markets are potentially lucrative for asset managers, many funds participate on a limited basis or not at all because the lack of price transparency between financial disclosures or funding rounds creates significant hurdles for their risk and NAV reporting. Independent pricing from ApeVue provides the objective, daily inputs asset managers require for robust NAV calculation, risk reporting and other governance standards set by Pricing Committees and Fund Boards.
“Many asset managers, especially regulated funds, face constraints to participating directly in the pre-IPO market,” said Nicholas Fusco, CEO and founder of ApeVue. “We help them overcome their most significant hurdles by providing objective inputs for a market-oriented NAV and risk process.”
ApeVue uses observable market information, including transactions, bid and offer data and funding details, in its service. The pricing mechanism is objective, transparent, auditable and resembles methodologies standard in other markets such as syndicated loans, structured credit, bonds and derivatives.
“Demand for private company stocks is growing rapidly, yet it is one of the last markets without transparent, daily pricing data. We source data from the nexus of institutional trading to build and deliver the largest, independent dataset covering non-public companies,” continued Fusco.
“Increasing transparency, the availability of timely data and improving infrastructure are signs of a maturing market, which is good for asset managers and the growth of the private company market,” said Glen Anderson, Managing Partner at Rainmaker Securities LLC. “When ApeVue brought this innovative idea to us, we immediately saw how their service would be of value to our clients and our firm.”
The ApeVue service currently provides Daily Pricing, Pricing History (six month minimum for most entities), Unique Company Identifiers and Sector/Industry Tags. Data are available via API or secure file transfer.
McKinsey estimated total private company equity value at about $7 trillion in 2020 and the market is growing rapidly. ApeVue data show that the ten most active private stocks in the institutional market returned over 86% last year. Of these, Klarna had the best return (+173.2%) and Impossible Foods had the weakest performance (-5.6%).
Source: Apevue